- Carpark
- Dan Deacon
“Wham City”
Dan Deacon listened to the happy hardcore of the 1990s and the cartoon jingles of his childhood, looked around at his racks of bastard electronics, and then set about concocting the most fanciful art-damage to come out of Baltimore since Animal Collective. “Wham City”, a manifesto of sorts for Deacon’s populist crew, is emblematic of his blending of infectious circuit-bent melodies and haywire musical architecture. His breathless lyrical cadence flits through a teetering tower of fragment-loop synth trills and sound effects, and with each subsequent listen, it becomes more amazing that Deacon’s Tinkertoy funhouse doesn’t collapse under its own weight. –Brian Howe
Listen: Dan Deacon: “Wham City”
- Merge
- Arcade Fire
“Keep the Car Running”
On hand to capture Win Butler and Régine Chassagne’s October duet with Bruce Springsteen were videographers Robert Brockie and Ryan Carey. Their widely circulated tape relayed the concert consensus at the surprise opening chords of the Arcade Fire’s “Keep the Car Running”: oh my god…What the fuck! Yeaaaahhh! That it was carpetbagging Canadians who ultimately lived America’s #1 rock’n’roll fantasy camp was a tribute to their song, a jittery getaway soundtrack that imagined the Boss’ good ol’ boys gone post-millennial and paranoid. –Zach Baron
- XL
- Dizzee Rascal
“Pussy’ole (Old Skool)”
Appropriating a heavy-hitting sample usually looks better on paper than it winds up sounding (see: Wu-Tang vs. the Beatles). But just as Kanye West did to Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up” a few years back, "Pussy’ole" finds Dizzee Rascal taking an iconic track (Rob Base and DJ EZ-Rock’s “It Takes Two”) and sharpening it, leaning not just on the euphoria and familiarity of the original but ratcheting up its pop pleasure with a galloping, insistent production and forceful rhymes. Sadly, not many people heard it-- or much from Rascal’s Maths + English LP, which wasn’t even released in U.S. shops. Were Rascal to have issued his three records to date in reverse order, he would likely be an indie superstar now-- moving from amped-up populism to the avant-garde. As it stands, an artist that a lot of our readers likely feel is overrated is now on a path to becoming underappreciated. –Scott Plagenhoef
- Jive
- Lil Mama
“Lip Gloss”
We’re living in a golden age of schoolyard rap right now. Every week, it seems, a new, sublimely simple catchphrase/ringtone/dance rises up from the playground to conquer the Hot 100. But due to, um, scheduling conflicts, Soulja Boy, MIMS, Shop Boyz, Hurricane Chris, and their friends couldn’t join us on Pitchfork’s Top Tracks list today. (Hey, Dude ’N Nem made it! Hey guys!) Lil Mama deserved to claw her way near the top, though, with her rapid-fire bragging about a certain liquid cosmetic (and other things, if you’re a Freudian) over the year’s most astonishingly minimal beat. Time will tell if 17-year-old Niatia Kirkland is the next Lil Wayne or the next Skee-Lo, but for now, she’s poppin’, and that’s all we need to know. –Amy Phillips
Listen: Lil Mama: “Lip Gloss”
- Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam
- Jay-Z
“Roc Boys (And the Winner Is...)”
As vérité cinema, American Gangster was a wash-- inspired by The Godfather, Goodfellas et al., panning over the life of a hustler who was nominally Jay-Z when he wasn't Frank Lucas or Nicky Barnes, Erik Estrada or Robert DeNiro. Amidst the mash-up of a dozen life stories, “Roc Boys” struck the autobiographical note: “And the winner is Hov!” This “black superhero music” was the success the jaded and over-satiated Kingdom Come wasn't: Happy to be there, grateful to those who'd helped, and chiseled, down to the entendres-- “Thanks to all the hustlers and most importantly, You: the customer.” –Zach Baron
- Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam
- Kanye West
“Can't Tell Me Nothing”
At first, it sounded like a weird capitulation, Kanye West giving up his ecstatic soul-samples for DJ Toomp’s dark, heaving Southern synths and trying on Young Jeezy’s sneering slow-flow. (None of which did much to redeem that one god-awful lyric about the devil wearing Prada and Adam and Eve wearing nada). But then the strut of that chorus sunk in, and the self-aware defiance and bitter regret of Kanye’s self-reliance anthem took hold: “I feel depression, under more scrutiny/ And what I do? Act more stupidly.” Jeezy’s sampled ad-libs float through the track like a ghost, and the low, sampled moans slowly eased their way past Toomp’s foghorn keyboards. Kanye’s fully-on-display egotism doesn’t make his confusion any less poignant; throughout, he seems to be struggling to say something that never quite comes to him. And that Prada/nada line? Funny thing about Kanye’s lyrical clunkers is that they eventually become endearing. –Tom Breihan
- Kompakt
- Gui Boratto
“Beautiful Life”
This nine-minute workout by Brazil’s Gui Boratto might read cloyingly with a refrain that goes “What a beautiful life, what a beautiful world,” but its churning chord progression squeezes out an essence more bittersweet than saccharine. The song’s surface-- woven from pock-marked synths, radiant ride cymbals, and bright snares-- feels crusted in rough-cut diamonds. That there are only three chords in the whole thing somehow makes its sense of yearning that much more urgent. Masterfully repetitive, it’s the little details-- close harmony vocals, high-necked New Order basslines-- that keep your heart breaking long after you’d thought it’d been sufficiently shattered. –Philip Sherburne
Listen: Gui Boratto: “Beautiful Life”
- Wichita
- Simian Mobile Disco
“I Believe”
In a year when acts like Justice and Klaxons raced to the first nosebleed, rockers-turned-DJs James Ford and James Anthony Shaw kept a relatively sober disposition. “I Believe” was the eye of 2007’s electronic hurricane, its heartbeat rhythm untainted by stimulants, its earnest dancefloor romance all-natural. I can’t even believe SMD have ever touched a guitar; usually stray riffs or fuzz effects haunt a rock-electro crossover, or at least tongue-in-cheek winks to mollify dance-phobic listeners. But here, the punk residue’s wiped totally clean, and “I Believe” ends 2007 as a stunning highlight from the year’s most successful post-op dance act. –Adam Moerder
Listen: Simian Mobile Disco: “I Believe”
- Domino
- Animal Collective
“Peacebone”
Animal Collective’s music often skirts silliness, but “Peacebone” is almost pure goof. Opening with the cartoonish non-sequitir “Boneface!,” the cut briefly sounds noisy and abstract. But once Geologist’s electronic squiggles coalesce into melody, Avey Tare weaves a surreal nursery rhyme, his monster tale sounding like an alternate-universe theme to “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse”. The huge hook of the chorus and the weird ya-ya yelps of the bridge only add to the helium-injected giddiness. By the end the band hits a delirious peak, a final dollop of whipped cream on this irresistible, tooth-decaying sundae. –Marc Masters
Listen: Animal Collective: “Peacebone”
- XL / Interscope
- M.I.A.
“Boyz”
An anti-patriarchy song that doubles as a flirt; a political song that doubles as a dancing-and-drinking song; yet another song where M.I.A. tries to mash up the entire Third World at once-- soca synths, Indian drumming, dancehall patois-- and pretty much succeeds. (There's a cheering crowd deep in the mix to vouch for her.) “Boyz” is stuffed with clever gestures, starting with the chorus' scuffed-CD skip, but the cleverest is hidden in the middle chant: It sounds like “how many how many boys are crazy?” Listen closer for the qualification: the war-starters are “no money boys.” –Douglas Wolk
Listen: M.I.A.: “Boyz”